This article is a series of 175 intensive readings of Chinese history, and the history of the Two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties is serialized in 18 (click on the blue character to view the previous part), welcome to watch.
Of the four dynasties of the Southern Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Qi, Liang, and Chen, the more accomplished emperors were all founding emperors. However, Liu Yu was only emperor for 3 years, Xiao Daocheng was 4 years, Chen Baxian was 3 years old, and only Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu reigned for 48 years, the longest time, and the entire Liang Dynasty was almost the only one who reigned.
The reign of Emperor Wu of Liang was a relatively stable era of the Southern Dynasty. This was because of the turmoil in the late Northern Wei Dynasty in the north, the revolt of the people of all ethnic groups, and the split into the Eastern and Western Wei, and there was no time to look to the south; Emperor Wu of Liang himself still wanted to make a difference in the early days and strive to govern. Therefore, the economy and culture of the Liang Dynasty were relatively prosperous.
01. Emperor Wu's New Deal
Xiao Yan (464-549), courtesy name Shuda, was a native of Nanlanling (南蘭陵; present-day northwestern Changzhou, Jiangsu), and was originally a fellow emperor of the Qi imperial family. The Xiao clan gradually rose from Xunmen to a first-class clan, together with the Langya Wang clan, the Chen Junxie clan, and the Chen Junyuan clan, and were called the four ethnic groups of qiao surnames.
But Xiao Yan himself still started with military merit. He used Emperor Qiwu's father and son to kill each other, expand his power, and finally seize power, from the xiangyang army to the establishment of the Liang Dynasty, showing that he did have a certain political and military talent.
After the establishment of the Liang Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Liang had some positive measures in all aspects of politics and economy.
He was "diligent in government affairs and diligent in his work". He paid attention to the selection of talents, sent emissaries to various places to "visit the sages and hold the slackers", and then issued an edict to set up a state, a county, and a township magnate in each prefecture and county, "in charge of searching and recommending." For the cold gate of the Shu people, they should also be allowed to participate in the political power, "trying to be an official with talent, and not leaving a gap."
He paid attention to listening to the opinions of the people, and set up a box next to the lung stone in the bus house, called "lung stone letter", the people have been wronged, or bullied by the magnates, they can submit the lung stone letter. He attached importance to the development of agricultural production, personally cultivated the land, allowed the peasants who had moved to other places to return to their hometowns, restored their original fields and houses, and repeatedly issued edicts to reduce the "three adjustments." The three adjustments, also known as the three lessons, are levied on a household basis.
In the first year of Tianjian (502), he carried out a "soil break" on the overseas Chinese counties in southern Xuzhou and increased financial revenue.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, there was also a great development in culture, and even Gao Huan in the north was quite impressed, saying: "There is a Wu'er old man Xiao Yan in Jiangdongfu, who specializes in dressing and liturgy, and zhongyuan shifu thinks that Zheng Shuo is." "
Emperor Wu of Liang loved to read books from an early age, and he studied the history of scriptures, literature, calligraphy, music, and astronomy. He wrote more than 200 volumes of the "Qunjing Shuo", including "Zhou Yi Shuo", "Shang Shu Dayi", etc., in the decline of Confucianism in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Liang Shi Confucian classics had a little turnaround.
He formulated the five ceremonies of Ji, Qi, Jun, Bin, and Jia, totaling more than 1,000 volumes and more than 8,000 articles. He also wrote the 600 volumes of the General History (480 volumes of the First Commentary), starting from the Three Emperors and ending in Liang, which may have been written by someone else, but the praise sequence was composed by Xiao Yan, and the name of today's "General History" first came from here.
His poems are also very well written, and he has written some Seven-Word Music Fu poems, which have played a role in promoting the development of Seven-Word Poetry. "Luoyang's daughter's name is mo worry" is his famous sentence.
02. Evil laws run rampant
Emperor Wu of Liang was extremely intoxicated with the good names of "benevolence" and "generosity", so no matter how great the crimes of the emperor's relatives and relatives, they would not be prosecuted. But for ordinary civilians, he has a vicious side, unceremoniously and cruelly exploiting and suppressing.
One statistic is that there are only more than 5 million people registered in the Southern Dynasty, but Liang Shi sentences more than 5,000 people to more than two years in prison every year, and the prison is full of prisoners. One criminal flees, the whole family is punished for hard labor, the whole family flees, the neighbors sit together, and the result is often that one person commits a crime and the whole village is empty.
Corruption is rife among officials. Yuhiro said to the people, "I am too defensive of the county, and there are four ends: the fish and turtles in the water, the pigs and deer in the mountains, the rice valley in Tanaka, and the villagers." “
The property looted by the officials must be contributed to the emperor, and those who contribute more are considered competent; those who have less are said to be lazy. An upright minister, He Chen, couldn't look past it, and went to a chapter and put forward four opinions:
First, the looting was too heavy, the people were overwhelmed, and the people fled to the nobles to evade taxes;
Second, officials are greedy, poor and extravagant, and wasteful;
The third is that the emperor left and right the powerful subjects to do the power and blessing, and framed the good people;
Fourth, the imperial court built a large number of civil engineering, endlessly, and the people served non-stop.
He Chen was telling the truth. Emperor Wu of Liang was furious and asked him to cite the facts one by one, pointing out his name, otherwise it would be slanderous, and he also cited the frugality of his life to refute it. In this way, He Chen did not dare to say anything more.
This was the case of Emperor Wu of Liang in his later years, when he was already too faint to listen to him.
03. Emperor Bodhisattva
Another lever for Emperor Wu of Liang to maintain his rule was the use of Buddhism as a tool for ideological rule. He said that Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were eclectic, and that the three religions were homologous. But Buddhism is the highest; followed by Confucianism and Taoism, Buddha is the moon, Confucianism and Taoism are just the surrounding stars, "judas moon reflects the stars."
Because of his advocacy and encouragement, Buddhism became popular. There are more than 500 monasteries inside and outside Jiankang, and the famous monasteries such as Tai, Da Ai Jing, Da Zhi Du, and His Holiness are connected one after another, and the lofty pavilions and high pagodas tower into the clouds. There are more than 100,000 monks and nuns in Jiankang City alone, and there are countless people in the country.
The Hanshan Temple in Fengqiao Town, Suzhou, was also built in the Liang Dynasty, when it was called Miaoming Puli Pagoda Temple, and later renamed Hanshan Temple because of the Tang Dynasty Hanshan Residence.
Xiao Yan's political success is all by chance, and he is a kind of figure who is pushed to the top of the wave by the tide. But once he came to power, he began to enrich himself, obliterating all the factors of the situation, and overestimating his intellectual ability and moral standards. In fact, he is selfish and mediocre, and he cannot appreciate the slightly higher views. He did not bother to give up his life again and again, and did not feel that others were numb on the side, which is an example.
In 527, he established a Tongtai Temple (present-day Jiming Temple in Nanjing) in Jiankang, and went to worship the Buddhist prayers in the morning and evening. One day in this year, Xiao Yan went to Tongtai Temple to make incense, and suddenly took off the emperor's dragon robe, put on the robe of a monk, and became a monk. After three days, he returned to the palace.
It was the first time he had sacrificed himself, and it was relatively calm. However, two years later, in 529, when Xiao Yan went to Tongtai Temple for the second time to sacrifice himself, he resolutely refused to return to the palace. The country could not live without the emperor, and after 73 days of stalemate, the ministers finally understood his meaning and donated 100 million yuan to "redeem" the "Emperor Bodhisattva" from Tongtai Temple.
Xiao Yan knew the taste of the marrow, followed by the third sacrifice in 546 and the fourth sacrifice in 547, each time the price was 100 million yuan.
On the night of his redemption, The Temple of Tongtai was suddenly struck by lightning and the pagoda burned down. Emperor Wu of Liang believed that this was a bad thing done by the devil and should be suppressed by doing things. He commanded: The higher the tao, the greater the devil, and there will be obstacles to doing good deeds, and the stupa should be rebuilt and the new pagoda should be built higher to suppress the devil.
He mobilized thousands of people to rebuild the 12-story tower, twice as high as the original, the tower was not yet completed, the Hou Jing Rebellion occurred, and the Tongtai Temple was destroyed by fire.
During the 48 years of Emperor Wu's reign, generally speaking, it was a relatively stable period in the south, he himself was able to write and fight, and the Economy and culture of the Liang Dynasty developed somewhat, but exploitation and oppression were also heavy.
In his later years, he was superstitious about Buddhism, fainting and decaying, which caused the rebellion of Hou Jing, and finally led to the demise of the Liang Dynasty.
Hou Jing's surrender was the year in which Xiao Yan gave up his body for the fourth time (547), and if it were not for Hou Jing, he would probably have to give up his life next year.
04. Accept Hou Jing
Hou Jing (503-552), a member of the Xianbei people, was originally a soldier in the northern town of Huaishuo (present-day southwest of Guyang, Inner Mongolia), and later became a general of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, who was deeply trusted by Gao Huan. Gao Huan asked him to lead 100,000 troops to defend Henan.
Gao Huan died, his son Gao Cheng succeeded him, Gao Cheng was at odds with Hou Jing, and wanted to seize his military power, Hou Jing surrendered to Western Wei, Western Wei did not believe him, and Eastern Wei sent troops to hunt him down, Hou Jing had to send people to Liang, willing to surrender Liang to The Thirteen Prefectures of Yu and Guang.
After Emperor Wu of Liang received Hou Jing's emissaries, he hurriedly summoned his ministers for consultation. Shangshu's servant Xie Ju said: "Liang and Eastern Wei have been at peace for many years, the border is peaceful, and now accepting his traitors will cause disputes, and this is not appropriate." “
Emperor Wu of Liang said, "The opportunity is rare, how can we miss it!" ”
Zhu Yi, a zhongshu sher, said: "Hou Jing descended from half of the land of Wei east of Hou Jing, which is providence. If they refuse to accept it, no one will come down in the future. Your Majesty is not suspicious. “
Emperor Wu of Liang decided to accept Hou Jing's surrender, and made Hou Jing the Grand General and King of Henan, in charge of military and political affairs in the north and south of the Yellow River.
Hou Jing's surrender was the same as the surrender of Feng Ting, the Korean shangdang (eldest son of Shanxi) during the Warring States period, to the Zhao state under pressure from the Qin army. All blessings without roots are dangerous, and the consequences of Zhao Guo can be used as a lesson for the future.
Eastern Wei was furious and immediately launched an attack on Hou Jing, who retreated to Hangyu (Runan, Henan). Xiao Yan could not but send troops to support him, and let his nephew Xiao Yuanming lead 50,000 troops to attack Pengcheng (彭城, in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu), contain Eastern Wei, and receive Hou Jing.
However, Xiao Yuanming had no combat experience, was still drinking before the war, and did not accept the correct advice of the veteran general Yang Kan, and as a result, he was defeated with Eastern Wei in a battle at Hanshanyan (southeast of Xuzhou, Jiangsu), the main force was eliminated, and Xiao Yuanming became a prisoner.
The news of The failure of Hanshanyan reached Jiankang, and Emperor Wu of Liang almost rolled off the bed.
After eastern Wei's great victory at Hanshan, it attacked Hou Jing again. Hou Jing retreated to Woyang (Mengcheng, Anhui), unable to resist the pursuit of Eastern Wei's troops, leading hundreds of pro-army troops, watching the thirteen states turn into clouds of smoke, and not even having a place to live, not knowing where to go.
In the end, only Hou Jing, with 800 men left with a force of 40,000 men, attacked the city of Shouyang (Shouyang was captured by Southern Liang in the 1930s, when Northern Wei was in a hurry, and changed it to Southern Yu Prefecture), and expelled Wei Dian, the governor of Jianzhou.
Xiao Yan expelled Hou Jing from the head of the local government, and instead of rebuking or punishing him, he immediately appointed Hou Jing as the pastor of the prefecture, and Hou Jing was overjoyed. However, he was also deeply impressed by Xiao Yan's fainting.
05. Hou Jing's Rebellion
After Xiao Yuanming was captured, Gao Cheng asked him to write a letter to Xiao Yan, suggesting that the two countries reconcile, and Xiao Yan replied. Si Nongqing Fu Qi warned: "Since Gao Cheng was not defeated, why did he seek peace?" Obviously, it was the opposite of the plan, hoping to stimulate Hou Jing. If Hou Jing is suspicious and changes, we must not jump into this trap. ”
Of course, Xiao Yan would not adopt it, and the envoys of the two countries began to communicate. Hou Jing was really frightened, and he said in the chapter: "If the two countries are reconciled, I am afraid that I will not be able to avoid Gao Cheng's poisonous hands." ”
Xiao Yan assured, "I am the Lord of the world, how can I be untrustworthy to people, you must know my heart well." ”
Hou Jing wrote a letter to Xiao Yan in the name of Gao Cheng, proposing to exchange Xiao Yuanming for Hou Jing. Xiao Yan revealed his true face at this time, and replied, "You send Back Xiao Yuanming in the morning, and I will return Hou Jing at night." ”
Hou Jing's grief was conceivable, so he gathered his forces and marched south.
Xiao Yan heard Hou Jing's rebellion and laughed and said, "I will break a branch and kill him." ”
As a result, Hou Jing raised an army in August 548, and in just two months, he successively attacked Yu prefecture (谯州, in modern Chuzhou, Anhui), Liyang (present-day Hexian County, Anhui), and reached the north bank of the Yangtze River (横江浦, in present-day Hexian County, Anhui), crossing the Yangtze River to jiankang City.
Emperor Wu of Liang was in a hurry, and on the one hand he sent the sixth prince Xiao Lun to lead an army to the north to seek Hou Jing, and on the other hand, he ordered the emperor's nephew Xiao Zhengde (the third son of Xiao Hong, the sixth brother of Emperor Wu of Liang) to be the general of Pingbei and the military governor of the capital, responsible for the defense of the river and the defense of the capital.
Emperor Wu of Liang originally thought that Hou Jing could not cross the Yangtze River, but Xiao Zhengde secretly sent dozens of empty ships to take Hou Jing to the south bank of the Qinhuai River in three days.
However, the various Qin kings of Southern Liang, under the command of the prince and his cronies, gathered outside the city and drank and feasted with beautiful women every day, but they did not dare to fight.
Soon, Hou Jing began to besiege and attack Taicheng in Jiankang City, where the emperor lived, and the soldiers and civilians in Taicheng resolutely resisted under the leadership of the famous general Yang Kan and the crown prince Xiao Gang.
At this time, there was a shortage of grain, firewood, and salt in Taicheng, and people demolished the houses in Shangshu Province as firewood, and then hunted rats and finches and killed horses for food.
Hou Jing's army also ran out of food under the siege of The Qin King's army. At Wang Wei's suggestion, Hou Jing released a smokescreen of peace talks, saying that as long as he ceded the land of the four states to him and took Xiao Daqi, the king of Xuancheng, as a hostage, he would no longer oppose Liang and lead his troops back to Jiangbei.
Emperor Wu of Liang began to firmly oppose it, believing that "it is better to die than to die!" The ministers also thought that Hou Jing's proposal of peace talks under the advantage of the siege was definitely a conspiracy.
However, Crown Prince Xiao Gang thought it was possible to make peace, and as a result, Emperor Wu of Liang said: "Ru Zizhi, don't make fun of Qianzai." "Agreed to the peace talks.
Therefore, Liang fenghou Jing was made the grand chancellor, the governor of Jiangxi, the military governor of the four prefectures of Jiangxi, the mu of Yuzhou, and the king of Henan; he sent people to kill and kill the blood of Hou Jing as an ally.
However, Hou Jing had no intention of withdrawing his troops, and under the pretext that The Qin Wangjun obstructed him from crossing the river, he asked Emperor Wu of Liang to issue an edict to retire the Qin Wangbing; as soon as the Jingzhou army retreated, Hou Jing tore up the peace treaty, and the table "Emperor Chen's Ten Losses" was listed above.
After Emperor Wu of Liang looked at his watch, he was ashamed and angry, and once again announced that he would fight Hou Jing. However, by this time, Hou Jing had already obtained grain from Dongfu City (建康東, where the chancellor gongqing lived). But the city is very difficult, many people are swollen and anxious, more than 100,000 people died eighty-nine-tenths of the time, only three or four thousand people remained, full of corpses, smelly.
Hou Jing attacked the city day and night, and in March of the third year of the Taiqing Dynasty (549), he finally captured Taicheng after more than a hundred days of siege. Emperor Liangwu sighed, "Self gain, self gain, self loss, and hate!" "
Hou Jing forced Emperor Wu of Liang to order that the army of the king outside the city be subject to his command. Part of the Qin army surrendered to Hou Jing, and part of it retreated to the same place. Emperor Wu of Liang was placed under house arrest in Taicheng and starved to death in May at the age of 86.
Xiao Yan's death was only two years after he accepted Hou Jing's surrender, and only nine months after he said that he had broken a branch.
06. Cosmic General
When Hou Jing was in turmoil, there was also a story about the scholar's disciple.
When Hou Jing was in Shouyang, he proposed marriage to the most honorable Wang and Xie Er surnames in the Southern Dynasty, and Xiao Yan said: "Wang Xie Mendi is too high to match, so you may wish to try it with the surname of Zhu and Zhang." ”
Hou Jing replied, "What door?" I taught them to be my domestic slaves. ”
He did. After Hou Jing entered Jiankang, Wang Xie's family was slaughtered and humiliated the most, almost extinct. The mendi and the family of the second surname have since disappeared.
After the death of Emperor Wu of Liang, Hou Jingli Xiao Gang became emperor, that is, Emperor Jianwen, who made himself Xiangguo, plus the cosmic general and the governor of Liuhe. Later, he abolished and killed Xiao Gang and established Xiao Dong. Soon after, he forced Xiao Dong to take the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, with the name of the country Han.
After Hou Jing captured Jiankang, he also sent troops to capture Wu County, WuXing, and Huiji, and wantonly burned and looted, and the rich Sanwu area was greatly damaged.
After Hou Jing captured Sanwu, he marched towards Jiangling, along the Yangtze River, with 200,000 trumpets and thousands of miles.
At that time in Jiangling was Xiao Yi (508-554), the seventh son of Emperor Wu of Liang. He had a heavy army in Jingzhou, and in February of the first year of Chengsheng (552), nai sent the general Wang Shengxuan to join forces with Gao Yao (高要; present-day Zhaoqing, Guangdong) Taishou Chen Baxian to fight Hou Jing.
Hou Jingbing retreated to Guyi (present-day Dangtu, Anhui) and was dealt a devastating blow. Later, Wang Monk's army entered Jiankang.
Hou Jing was defeated and ran east, and in April, he and dozens of his henchmen took a boat into the sea. Hou Jing fell asleep on the ship, and the shipwright turned the rudder back to sail towards Jingkou. The ship approached Jingkou, and Hou Jing woke up to find that he wanted to commit suicide by throwing himself into the water, and was killed by the people on board. The body was sent to Jiankang and exposed to the city. The people of Jiangnan competed for his flesh and burned their bones and ashes to relieve their hatred.
Hou Jingbing was defeated and killed, and the great chaos finally subsided, and Xiao Xuan was proclaimed emperor. However, the country was in ruins, and Hou Jing's rebellion caused great damage to the social economy of Jiangnan. Jiankang, with a population of more than 280,000 households, was destroyed, and the Yangzhou area became "thousands of miles of smoke, rare human movements, and white bones, such as Qiu Longyan". The material basis on which the southern regime depended was getting weaker and weaker, creating conditions for the future unification of the south by the north.
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The content of this article is compiled from the "History of the Two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties" of the China International Broadcasting Publishing House's China Reading Book "Classic Chinese General History".
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